Things one finds on the back of photographs.

[Johnf04]

This is the wedding photograph of my wife's maternal grandmother, in 1919.

[Johnf04]

My wife's grandfather died in 1925, and in 1926 a coloured version of the photograph was made. This key sheet for the colour version is attached to the back of the above photograph.

[Ruskie]

That's excellent John! 

Do you happen to have the coloured version too?

If not, I'm sure if you posted this on the photo restoration board some of the experts would enjoy colourising it for you using those wonderfully helpful notes.

[Johnf04]

The coloured version used to hang in the hallway of my wife's grandmother's house.....but she died in 1975, and we don't know what happened to the picture.

[Ayashi]

There's a photograph of my grandmother and on the back my grandfather has written a list "first met on DATE" "First took notice of each other on DATE" "First got serious on DATE"...

I've also got a number of photos that say things like "my mother", which is only semi-helpful because we don't know who was writing the notes...

[Mart 'n' Al]

It seemed obvious when I first read it, but people would more often write names of 'more remote' members of family and friends, than close ones.  If it was you and your wife, you probably wouldn't bother, but if it was Reg and Doris who you met on holiday in Frinton in 1963 then perhaps you would.

Martin

[BillyF]

I can`t begin to say how many old photos we have with no idea who the people are. My mother has written on some, but we had to use a bit of detective work on those without names, some of which we`ll never know.

I have to admit to getting it wrong myself, as i showed a photo to my husband saying it was my mother`s cousin Denis;  when I turned it over Mum had written Norman L , cousin but when I researched him that was his 2nd middle name !!

[Ruskie]

Hi John,

Off topic, but I see you are researching Farrell and McCann in Ayrshire.

I have these surnames in a tree I was researching some time ago:
Charles Farrell (born about 1817) married Jane McCann (born about 1818).
They came from Ireland some time between 1844 and 1848.  Both died in Stevenston.

Do you think there might be a connection with your Farrells and McCanns?

[Johnf04]

Hi there - my Farrells start with Jeremiah, who was Irish, and who married Ann Muir in St Quivox, Ayrshire in 1829. The McCanns descend from John McCann, who went to Scotland from Ireland, with his wife Mary McRee between 1847 and 1851. In 1912, John Brown Farrell, grandson of Jeremiah, married Agnes Cairns, granddaughter of John McCann, in Stevenston.